Strawberry Shortcake

So today is national strawberry shortcake day! And dear readers, I have a beautiful vegan and gluten-free strawberry shortcake recipe for you!

I love this time of year when fresh, organic and locally grown strawberries are everywhere. Last weekend we picked up this gorgeous punnet of little, sweet New York strawberries at one of our favorite eateries and went through them in a matter of minutes.

Strawberries!

My partner, Ken, has often asked me for strawberry shortcake over the years. I’ve made him vanilla cakes with strawberries and cream that approximate, but never the real thing until now. Aren’t I horrible? But when I realized that national strawberry shortcake day was coming up, I decided that that had to change.

Strawberry shortcake!

Strawberry shortcakes are essentially rich, sweet biscuits layered with macerated strawberries and abundant amounts of whipped cream. They are incredibly easy to whip together, fantastically delicious, and a little naughty, but oh so good! And of course, I love that they are meant to be a little bit rustic.

Don’t you want to dive in?

Instead of making my own whipped cream, I used the new vegan coconut whipped cream from So Delicious. It’s light, fluffy and sweet. However, if I was inclined to make it from scratch, I’d probably use my raw coconut whipped cream recipe, available here.

The biscuits for strawberry shortcake are supposed to be rich! Some recipes call for copious amounts of butter, others for copious amounts of heavy cream, and yet others for both! I opted for the lighter side in developing this recipe and made a cashew-based equivalent of heavy cream. It was seriously the easiest thing: 3/4 cup soaked cashews with 3/4 cup of filtered water blended together until smooth. This yielded about 1 1/4 cups. It was the same consistency as heavy cream and perfect for this recipe. I also used it as the base of a caesar salad dressing later in the day!

Add cream mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until just mixed.

Add biscuit mixture to the cake pans (they should be ungreased) and bake for 15-18 minutes until a light golden brown.

Remove from pans and cool for at least ten minutes.

Once the biscuits are cool enough to easily handle, carefully cut in half.

Layer half of the strawberries on one half of the biscuit.

Top with generous amounts whipped cream and then top with the other half of the biscuit.

Sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top and serve right away!

Notes

To make vegan "heavy cream" blend together an equivalent amount of soaked cashews and filtered water. 3/4 cup of each yields about 1 1/4 cups, which is more than you'll need for this recipe.

By Shannon

Vegan Sweet and Simple http://vegansweetandsimple.com/

You can serve them warm, or let them cool completely. But for ultimate yumminess, it’s best to eat these the day the biscuits were baked. Just load them with strawberries and whipped cream right before you serve them!

Sweet, fresh, delicious!

This recipe makes two four-inch shortcakes (or one six-inch shortcake) and each shortcake is the perfect size for two!

Perfect dessert for two!

And it’s just the thing you’ll want to share with your sweetie! Happy strawberry shortcake day!